Triton XXII, Lot: 944. Estimate $7500. Sold for $5500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. February-March 44 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.73 g, 9h). Lifetime issue. Rome mint; P. Sepullius Macer, moneyer. Laureate and veiled head right; CAESAR downward to right, DICT PERPETVO upward to left / Venus Victrix standing left, holding Victory in extended right hand and vertical scepter in left; shield set on ground to right; [P • SE]PVLLIVS downward to right, MACER downward to left. Crawford 480/13; Alföldi Type IX, 91-2 (A48/R56); CRI 107d; Sydenham 1074; RSC 39; BMCRR Rome 4173-4; RBW 1685. EF, toned with underlying luster, reverse slightly off center.

From the Alan J. Harlan Collection, purchased from Edward J. Waddell. Ex Tkalec (8 September 2008), lot 181.

P. Sepullius Macer was the most prolific moneyer of 44 BC, striking the widest variety of Caesar portrait issues. Caesar is shown wreathed, sometimes also veiled, and his titles given as CAESAR IMP and CAESAR DICT PERPETVO. The reverse image of Venus includes a number of minor design variants. The varying quality of portraiture and strike likewise indicate great haste of manufacture, perhaps in preparation for Caesar’s projected Parthian war.